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MEMBER DIARY

Joe Wilson: Apologize No More

President Obama has himself to blame for the heckling he received from Rep Joe Wilson (R,SC-2). The President abused the system by calling a joint session of Congress for the purpose of passing a piece of legislation. He took such an extraordinary step not to ask for a Declaration of War, for a Constitutional Amendment, nor for any other weighty institutional purpose, but merely to help in selling a product his customers do not want.

The members of Congress Barack Obama called to audience had spent their summer away from the halls of Congress and in different halls in their home States and districts. They encountered a quiet determination from those unwilling to surrender the freedom to direct their own health, life, and the time and manner of their own deaths. The members met with others who were just as determined, but who refused to be quiet: hecklers, and Americans standing at microphones making the cogent, searing case opposing the destruction of liberty.

At one town hall with Rep. Tim Johnson (R-IL), a citizen used the word “revolution”. A murmur of approval swept the crowd. The Congressman was forced to explicitly argue that it was not time for revolution. He could see the torches and pitchforks.

Mr. Wilson doubtless faced this same American steel over the recess.

As a result of his misuse of the processes and institutions of government, Mr. Obama cheapened his office and opened himself up not just to the standing ovations of his allies, but to the pitchforks as well. It is no wonder, then, that Joe Wilson stood to oppose the Demagogue in Chief. I wish there had been more who did.

I wish honest Republicans and Democrats had sat facing away from the podium, arms folded, perhaps talking among themselves. I wish they had stood as one and yelled “You lie!” whenever the President lied, or “Divisive!” when he called them names and belittled the people they represent. (They would have had sore throats the next morning, but their medical care is the best our money can buy.) I wish they would have followed Mark Shimkus (R-IL) and walked from the room.

Of the uproar in the press and the finger wagging from ostensible conservatives, Mark Levin said, “I’m not one of these conservatives who’s worried whether the dining room table is set properly when someone is trying to burn my house down.”

Our forefathers dressed as savages and, against their own economic interests and at under penalty of Treason, threw tea into Boston Harbor. They took arms against their own government’s attempt to tax the whiskey they wished to buy, sell, and consume. And since then we have never shied away from fighting that government with their voices when needed.

The time for hushed and quiet talk is past, though the time to take up arms has not arrived. Now we must be unafraid to stand on the truth, on principle over form, and not shy away from any opportunity to express ourselves, whether in a town hall or a Congressional one.

Joe Wilson will not go quietly into the night. Neither will I.

I can’t speak for Joe, but when the time comes, I’m on the side of the pitchforks.